From Sake Brewing to Energy Production: How Innovation in Biofuels Is Coming From Unlikely Places

(Mitsubishi Heavy Industries/Forbes) ... Biofuels are one example of the unique synergy that arises when energy developers think “outside the box”. In shifting the focus to fermentation, researchers find themselves relying on sake brewers to produce the biofuels they need. Biofuels, which have existed for as long as automobiles, are now being produced en masse in light of volatile oil prices and global warming concerns.

Much work is being done today on sustainably sourcing biofuels in a way that is both cost and energy efficient. Sake brewers are joining efforts with energy companies and researchers to drive those efforts.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) is one of the companies that has made successful strides in using sake brewing technology to produce biofuels. In 2011 they successfully completed a three-year endeavor to develop biofuel ethanol from locally sourced soft cellulose, such as rice and barley straw, with the help of Hakutsuru Sake Brewing in the fermentation process and Kansai Chemical Engineering in the distillation and dehydration processes. Hakutsuru Sake Brewing teamed up with Kobe University to establish a technology that converts sugar in rice and barley to ethanol through the use of yeasts. READ MORE